After having a stroke, a patient normally spends time in a hospital where he or she can be observed and provided with care until becoming healthy enough for discharge. During the hospital stay, the patient is typically moved from place-to-place within the hospital or to other health care facilities with a wheelchair that is pushed by hospital staff. While such movement is effective, it does not require any effort on the part of the patient. This is unfortunate as a patient's limbs, including the arms, are often weak after a stroke and requiring the patient to use the arms to propel the wheelchair could help restore the patient's arm strength and function.
Although conventional wheelchairs often have hoops mounted to the wheels that enable healthy individuals to drive the chair, stroke patients often lack the strength and/or range of motion to propel the wheelchair in this manner. While other manual drive mechanisms have been developed beyond wheel hoops, they also normally require strength or a range of motion that recent stroke victims do not possess.
In view of the above discussion, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a wheelchair that can be more easily manually operated by a user sitting in the chair.